City University London's giCentre develops cutting-edge bike use visualisation

City shares expertise with Transport for London to analyse London Cycle Hire data.

First published Tuesday, 11th September, 2012•by John Stevenson

City University London's giCentre, part of the City Collaborative Transport Hub, is developing innovative research for public transport professionals.

The giCentre - which is involved in high-quality research and education involving the use of Geographic Information (GI) - has combined novel tools for visualising and analysing big data alongside insights into consumer behaviour and preference patterns.

Transport for London (TfL) is collaborating with Professor of Visual Analytics, Jo Wood and PhD candidate, Roger Beecham, to analyse data from the London Cycle Hire scheme. The data is helping to validate the team's new techniques.

The scientists' initial work has allowed TfL to answer important questions about the barriers and incentives that affect the behaviour of cyclists in London. The City team believes that deeper understanding of this behaviour could offer valuable guidance to other cities around the world as they develop and expand similar schemes, aiming to follow the success of London in boosting cycling uptake.

The diagram below maps the transition between geographic and grid views of London Cycle Hire docking station sites. There are three shades of brown indicating the docking station's status in real time: empty, normal and full.

This second diagram below is a still captured from one Professor Wood's videos indicating dominant patterns in the massive numbers of London Cycle Hire journeys (10 million), based on their origins and destinations.

According to Professor Wood:

"By using visual analytics, the giCentre is developing applications to understand the millions of journeys made by hundreds of thousands of cyclists across London. This allows transport planners and organisations such as TfL to make better informed decisions to support the movement of people around our cities."

Find us

City, University of London is an independent member institution of the University of London. Established by
Royal Charter in 1836, the University of London consists of 18 independent member institutions with outstanding
global reputations and several prestigious central academic bodies and activities.

City, University of London uses cookies to improve your experience on our website. By continuing browsing this website without changing your cookie settings, we assume you agree to this. Find out about the cookies we use.